Of course lots of people don't have that kind of access. As one of my favorite geographers, Cindi Katz, argues, while the world is getting smaller for some, it's becoming much larger for others (see the recent hardening of Fortress Europe).

But really I blogged this term because I'm still mulling over vereda. Thanks to all who have commented on that post. My current favorite is rural township, but I'd love more thoughts. Anyways, when I saw aldea global in the paper the other day it struck me that it's odd that aldea seems to only get used figuratively in Colombia.

2 comments:

Hi again, this is a rather unrelated question, but I was just reading your recent article in the ACME journal and wondered about the use of 'por' and 'para'. As you note on p.293, one of your collaborators saw herself as working 'por' Guatemalans who had been murdered by SOA trained soldiers. As you note, 'por' assumes a rather substitutive/charity style logic of doing 'for' others ... I wonder if 'para' could be an alternative, connoting a relationship 'towards' rather than 'for' ....? It could also be an alternative to 'con' I suppose. (In case you can't tell, I'm also working on the question of 'decolonising solidarity' - and using Diane Nelson's work too!)

the recent article Ana is referring to is at the bottom of the page athttp://www.acme-journal.org/Volume7-2.htm(in both Spanish and English)

both abstracts below

IMPERIALISM WITHIN:CAN THE MASTER’S TOOLS BRING DOWN EMPIRE?

Imperialism affects “here” as well as “there”. White middle class women have historically gotten out of the home and gained more of a Self by being good helpers, classically as teachers and missionaries. In this role they consolidated empire’s power, often unintentionally. Today the good helper role is being wiedley used, not only by white women, to work against empire. Yet this master’s tool is toxic. It may appear to take tiles off the house, but it reinforces the systems of domination that prop up empire. Those of us who struggle against empire must also struggle against the imperialism within ourselves. This analysis of ways to decolonize solidarity work is grounded in the movement to close the School of the Americas [a U.S. army training camp] and a collaborative theorizing process with white middle class women prisoners of conscience. This work engages in alter-geopolitics, working to build another world.

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decolonizing solidarity

My other bloglooks at colonial patterns in international solidarity and ways that we might change them, and talks about my research on international accompaniment and how it uses difference and privilege to make space for peace. The latest entries are listed below.